The Sleepwalkers (83 page)

The
tone
of
these
and
all
subsequent
letters,
compared
to
the
correspondence
between
contemporary
humanists,
and
particularly
Dantiscus'
own,
is
astonishing
and
pathetic.
The
man
who
removed
the
earth
from
the
centre
of
the
universe
writes
to
the
poet
laureate
and
former
Ambassador
at
large,
in
the
style
of
an
obsequious
clerk,
submissive
yet
sour,
nagged
by
some
obscure
jealousy,
or
resentment,
or
mere
inability
to
loosen
up
and
enter
into
a
human
relationship.

The
third
letter,
dated
a
year
later,
9
August,
1537,
is
in
a
different,
but
not
in
a
brighter
vein.
It
was
written
after
the
death
of
the
Bishop
of
Ermland,
Mauritius
Ferber,
when
it
was
a
foregone
conclusion
that
Dantiscus
would
be
elected
his
successor.
It
contains
some
indifferent
political
gossip
which
had
reached
Copernicus
in
letters
from
Breslau
two
full
months
earlier;
among
other
items,
a
rumour
about
an
armistice
between
the
Emperor
and
Francois
I,
which
happened
to
be
unfounded.
It
is
hard
to
see
what
reason
Canon
Koppernigk
had
for
sending
this
outdated,
second-hand
information
on
to
Dantiscus
who
had
correspondents
at
the
four
corners
of
the
earth
–
except
the
reason
that
Dantiscus
was
on
the
point
of
becoming
his
immediate
superior.

On
20
September,
1537,
the
Canons
of
Frauenburg
Chapter
solemnly
assembled
in
the
Cathedral
to
elect
their
new
Bishop.
The
privilege
to
nominate
the
candidates
was
held,
according
to
the
intricate
ecclesiastical
procedure
in
Ermland,
by
the
Polish
King,
while
the
election
itself
was
the
privilege
of
the
Chapter.
In
fact,
however,
the
candidates
on
the
royal
list
had
been
previously
agreed
upon
between
the
Chapter
and
the
Chancellery,
with
Dantiscus
as
go-between.
The
list
comprised
Dantiscus
himself
(on
whose
election
all
parties
had
previously
agreed),
and
three
other
candidates.
The
others
were
Canons
Zimmerman
and
von
der
Trank,
who
do
not
concern
us,
and
Canon
Heinrich
Snellenburg.

Now
this
Canon
Snellenburg
had
some
twenty
years
earlier
incurred
a
debt
of
a
hundred
Marks
to
Canon
Koppernigk,
and
had
only
repaid
ninety.
Canon
Koppernigk
thereupon
had
written
a
dusty
epistle
(one
of
the
sixteen
precious
extant
letters)
to
the
Bishop
of
that
time,
petitioning
him
to
make
Snellenburg
pay
up
the
ten
Marks.
The
outcome
of
the
affair
we
do
not
know;
the
years
had
gone
by,
and
now
the
lazy
debtor
Snellenburg
was
nominated
as
a
candidate
for
the
Bishop's
See.
It
was
a
purely
formal
nomination
since
Dantiscus
was
to
be
elected,
yet
it
gave
rise
to
a
grotesque
little
episode.
Tiedemann
Giese,
the
devoted,
angelic
Giese,
wrote
a
letter
to
Dantiscus
asking
him
to
take
Snellenburg
off
the
list
of
candidates
because
he
"would
expose
the
Chapter
to
ridicule",
and
to
put
Canon
Koppernigk's
name
in
his
place.
Dantiscus,
who
evidently
could
not
care
less,
obliged.
Copernicus
had
the
satisfaction
of
being
a
candidate
to
the
Bishopric,
and
Dantiscus
was
elected
unanimously,
including
Copernicus'
vote.

So
now
Bishop
Dantiscus
was
installed
at
Heilsberg
Castle,
where
Copernicus
had
spent
six
years
of
his
life
as
secretary
to
Uncle
Lucas.
In
the
autumn
of
1538,
he
made
an
official
tour
of
the
towns
of
his
new
Bishopric,
accompanied
by
Canons
Reich
–
and
Koppernigk.
This,
says
Prowe
"was
the
last
friendly
encounter
between
the
former
friends
Dantiscus
and
Copernicus"
⁸⁰
–
though
there
is
no
evidence
that
they
had
ever
been
friends.
In
the
course
of
that
official
tour,
or
perhaps
a
little
later,
Dantiscus
must
have
broached
an
embarrassing
subject.
It
concerned
a
certain
Anna
Schillings,
a
distant
relative
of
Canon
Koppernigk's,
and
his
focaria
.
According
to
Copernicus'
biographers,
"
focaria
"
meant
housekeeper.
According
to
Baxter
and
Johnson
Medieval
Latin
Word
List
,
⁸¹
it
meant
"housekeeper
or
concubine".
We
know
that
one
other
Canon
in
Frauenburg,
Alexander
Sculteti,
⁸²
also
had
a
focaria
,
and
several
children
by
her.
Now
Dantiscus
was
anything
but
a
prude,
he
kept
sending
money
to
his
former
mistress,
and
doted
on
portraits
of
his
pretty
daughter.
But
it
was
one
thing
to
have
amorous
affairs
in
one's
youth
while
travelling
in
distant
countries,
and
another
to
live
openly
with
a
focaria
in
one's
own
diocese.
Besides,
not
only
the
two
men
had
aged,
but
their
century
too;
the
Counter
Reformation
was
determined
to
restore
clean
living
among
the
clergy,
whose
corruption
had
bred
the
Luthers
and
Savonarolas.
Canon
Koppernigk
was
sixty-three;
it
was
time,
both
by
the
personal
and
historical
clock,
to
say
vale
to
his
focaria
.